Oz and James's Big Wine Adventure

Oz Clarke attempts to educate Top Gear presenter James May about the pleasures of drinking wine. The first episode begins in the Bordeaux region, where the sceptical student learns to appreciate the nose on individual bottles, and tries to talk his way through a tasting session at ultra-posh Chateau Pichon Longueville-Baron

The pair visit an oyster farm in Montpellier and a bull-fighting festival in Beziers, as Oz attempts to prepare James for his challenge of cooking a meal and finding the best wine to match it. James finally thinks he's making progress when he learns an important fact about dessert wine, but baffles everyone with his choice of dish for the challenge

The Rhne Valley provided ample opportunity to learn about lots of different grape varieties. However, the world-renowned winemaker Michel Chapoutier provides an obvious distraction for James with his classic car collection. The father and son team of Domaine Viret, Alain and Philippe Viret, managed to extol the benefits of embracing cosmoculture, a mystical approach to grape growing involving the harnessing of the cosmic energy of the sky.

The duo headed to Alsace and Burgundy for a lesson on barrel making, and terroir - a catch-all way of describing the many factors that can influence the quality of a vineyard. Oz then took a sceptical James to meet one of Burgundys most celebrated winemakers, Thierry Beaumont, to sample Burgundies from Thierrys three separate terroirs

The duo visit three champagne producers in north eastern France. They meet a champagne-maker who shares James' love of vintage cars, and a man who makes the wine in his back garden. Oz also tests James to discover how much he has learnt

On arriving in the north-eastern corner of France, in Champagne, James and Oz were shown how to blend wines in the headquarters of the House of Krug, by Rmi Krug himself. Next, theyre off to meet an independent champagne producer, the Compte Audoin de Dampierre. And of course James is more interested in looking at the Counts vintage Aston Martin than tasting the vintage champagne